Margie Juanita O'NEAL b. 30 Jul 1924 , , Texas, USA d. 25 Jul 1997 , Harris, Texas, USA: An Armstrong & A Heffernan

1924 - 1997 (72 years)

Name	Margie Juanita O'NEAL [1, 2]
Born	30 Jul 1924	, , Texas, USA [3, 4]
Gender	Female
Died	25 Jul 1997	, Harris, Texas, USA [5]
Buried	27 Jul 1997	Hitchcock, Galveston, Texas, USA
Buried	Address: Galveston Memorial Park Cemetery Galveston County Galveston County, Texas
Person ID	I2653	An Armstrong & A Heffernan
Last Modified	27 Apr 2015

Father	Frank Sylvester O'NEAL, b. 24 Sep 1886, Victoria, Victoria, Texas, USA , d. 25 Mar 1938, Lebanon, Laclede, Missouri, USA (Age 51 years)
Mother	Clarinda Mae SPARKS, b. 23 Jul 1891, Big Hill, Limestone, Texas, USA , d. 6 Sep 1986, Mexia, Limestone, Texas, USA (Age 95 years)
Married	31 Dec 1908	, Coryell, Texas, USA [6, 7]
Photos		O'Neal, Frank and Clarinda's Family Back: "Curly" on the left and Frank Jr. on the right. The front row (L-R) are Joyce, James?, Patsy, Clarinda, Milton "Peewee", possibly Lois, and Margie.
Photos		O'Neal Family Photo
Family ID	F767	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family 1 George Wayne KAYS, b. 1921, , , Kansas, USA , d. Yes, date unknown

Married Abt 1939

Children

	1. Living
	2. Sue Ellen KAYS, b. 26 May 1942, Mount Carmel, Wabash, Illinois, USA , d. 10 Apr 2017, Groesbeck, Limestone, Texas, USA (Age 74 years)
	3. Living

Last Modified 6 Dec 2008

Family ID F1346 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Family 2 Sherman Martin IRISH, b. 4 Jul 1921, , , California, USA , d. 14 Apr 1986, , Matagorda, Texas, USA (Age 64 years)

Married 23 Aug 1947 [8]

Children

	1. Living
	2. Living
	3. Living
	4. Living

Last Modified 27 Apr 2015

Family ID F1347 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Family 3	Linwood Potter CAYTON, b. 18 Nov 1917, , Beaufort, North Carolina, USA , d. 8 Jan 1996, , Bell, Texas, USA (Age 78 years)
Married	16 Oct 1971	, Galveston, Texas, USA [9]
Last Modified	27 Apr 2015
Family ID	F7808	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Photos

O'Neal, Frank and Clarinda's Family
Back: "Curly" on the left and Frank Jr. on the right. The front row (L-R) are Joyce, James?, Patsy, Clarinda, Milton "Peewee", possibly Lois, and Margie.

Notes

A childhood friend of Margie exchanged these email messages with me:
Back in the late 30's, I went to school in Lebanon, Mo., with a young lady named Margie O'Neal. She had several brothers and sisters, at least some of them older than she. Her dad and my dad worked together for an oil pipeline company.
When we were in 8th grade, her father died. I am not sure what happened to the family after that. We moved away a year or two later.
I know they were from Limestone Co, Texas, which also was my mother's home. The school we attended had a plaque in honor of the man for whom it was named -- and his middle name was Groesbeck. Margie and I used to laugh about it, because both of our grandmothers lived in a town called Groesbeck.
Anyone have any idea what happened to this family and to Margie?
love
joan

Hi Joan,
Our Margie was born in 1924 and her father who was in the oil fields died in 1938. The family moved back to Limestone Co. where Grandma Clarinda remarried a man named Keys.
Margie married Jimmie Kays and they had three children. I'm not sure whether Jimmie died, or if they divorced - but Margie married again to Sherman Irish and had four more children.
Sadly, Aunt Margie died in 1997. Do those years match up? Is this your friend? I would love to have some reminisces about her if possible.
Gina Heffernan

Yes, it is, it is!
I am sure that was Margie who went to school with me in Lebanon, Mo. I was born in 1925 -- and was the youngest in the class.
Both our dads worked for the Ajax Pipe Line Co., which pumped oil from near Tulsa, OK (where I live now) to Wood River, Ill. Most Ajaxers had been transferred to that company from Humble Oil in Texas.
We were transferred to Lebanon in 1936 just before school started for our eighth grade year. We lived in the camp, about six miles from Lebanon. I think the O'Neals had lived out there earlier, but had moved into town by the time we arrived. The houses were small and may not have had enough room for their family.
It is a little hazy in my mind, but I think there was another Ajax family with many kids who had lived there in camp also, and I cannot remember if we moved into the house in which they had lived or in which the O'Neals had lived. One family had two boys named Buck and Mervin, and I am not sure if they were O'Neals or the other one. The only memory I have for sure of Margie's brothers -- one was very slender and not very strong. He went out for track, but he was not as strong as the other boys. At a lengthy race, maybe a mile in length, he came in last. But what I remember was, he did not give up. He was nowhere near the others, either teammates or competitors, but he just kept running until he crossed the finish line where he nearly collapsed. And he got a great round of applause. It was a good lesson in never-give-up.
When we finished eighth grade, we had a formal graduation ceremony and we girls wore long dresses. Mine was pink organdy which I considered very definitely "little girlish." Most of the others also wore pastels, many organdy. Margie, however, had a long slim dress of toast brown crepe. It had a princess skirt which sort of "flowed." We all thought she looked so sophisticated. She was a small girl, smaller than I, with short blond hair and a winsome smile.
We were in high school the next spring when her father died. I remember Margie was standing in the lobby of the two-story building, looking sort of alone and her eyes were red. She evidently had been crying. I went up to her and asked her what was wrong, and she said, "Didn't you know? My Daddy died."
It was the first time I had come face to face with someone coping with death and I did not know what to say. I don't know what I did say, I probably just mumbled something because I was not very socially adept at the time. But I have never forgotten it.
And those two memories of Margie -- in her toast brown crepe dress and the other with her red eyes -- are very much with me after more than 60 years.
How strange that I should connect with you, and with her, after all these years. Isn't the Internet incredible?
love
joan

Yes, the Internet IS a wonderful place. I have been in touch with other people who turn out to be cousins I never knew I had. I think this whole story is pretty amazing.
I have to think that the brother who ran would have been Frank Jr. He was 3 years younger than Margie. Her other brothers were much older - by at least 6 years. She has one sibling who is still alive - Odis "Curly". Her father was Frank and I was told he had a heart attack. At the time of his death his oldest son Milton "Peewee" was also working on the pipeline and was starting a family. My mother-in-law was born in Lebanon four years before her grandfather Frank died.
I went to school with Frank Jr's boys in the 70s. They were such nice young men and two of them still go to my mother's church. As a matter of fact, the oldest (Frank III) married the eldest daughter of my mother's best friend. Frank and Brenda (his wife) were my best friends in the 9th grade even though they were a few years older. I met Jack (my husband) in 1989 and he told me that Frank was his cousin. I thought it pretty funny then since I had had a crush on Franks' brother in high school.
So, with all the coincidences of your meeting Margie and finding out you had similar roots - with me going to school with Frank's boys - then I marry their cousin's son - and finally you send a note to the mailing list I JUST joined. There are a lot of coincidences there. I was very surprised when I read your note, I just knew it had to be Aunt Margie.
Gina Heffernan

Sources

[S1677] 1930 Brown TX, ED 21, pg 4B.
Margie Oneal
[S557] Texas State Birth Index, Kays, Michael Wayne.
Margie Juanita O'Neal
[S336] Haralson, Katherine O'Neal.
30 Jul 1924, Texas
[S1677] 1930 Brown TX, ED 21, pg 4B.
age 5, Texas
[S558] Texas Death Index, 1964-1998, (FamilySearch.org), Cayton, Margie Juanita.
[S336] Haralson, Katherine O'Neal, Frank Sylvester O'Neal.
31 Dec 1908, Coryell County
[S1521] Texas County Marriage Records, 1837-1965, (FamilySearch.org), O'Neal, Frank.
to Clarinda Sparks, 31 Dec 1908, Kirk, Limestone County
[S1253] Texas Divorce Index, 1968-2010, (FamilySearch.org), Irish, Sherman M.
from Margie J Irish, 8 Oct 1971, Galveston County; married 23 Aug 1947.
[S1248] Texas Marriages, 1966-2010, (FamilySearch.org), Cayton, Linwood P.
to Margie J O'Neal, 16 Oct 1971, Galveston County